An ongoing demand exists for action toys having novel features. It is of course important that any such toy be effective in its appearance and operation, while being durable and relatively facile and inexpensive to manufacture. The prior art discloses numerous forms of action toys in which various parts can be moved and disposed in different ways; typical are the following U.S. patents:
Powers U.S. Pat. No. 152,250 discloses an articulated figure which is assembled with and retractable into a spherical or spheroidal shell.
Allen U.S. Pat. No. 497,159 discloses a ship-like object comprised of parts which can be folded into an egg-shaped body with which they are joined.
An articulated, configuration-changing structure, made of pivotally connected blocks, is described in Washington U.S. Pat. No. 2,751,634.
Lower U.S. Pat. No. 2,118,677 shows a doll construction wherein a connector made of a flexible elastic material is used for maintaining the appendages in assembly with the body.
Bonanno et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,377,740 discloses a doll having spring-loaded arms mounted upon a common shaft.
A toy figure having body parts that are stretchable and capable of forming various shapes is taught by Kuhn in U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,336.
In Cotey et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,991, appendages of an articulated doll are attached to an internal skeleton by ball and socket arrangements.
Murakami discloses a toy doll in U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,097, wherein the appendages collapse into the box-like trunk of the figure.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel humanoid figure toy which is constructed to permit folding from a substantially erect posture to a substantially cylindrical curled configuration.
It is a more specific object of the invention to provide such a novel toy wherein the body parts and appendages are relatively rigid, and are shaped and joined to one another in such a manner as to permit the necessary conformation for facile folding.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel toy of the foregoing nature wherein external features of the several parts enable rolling in its curled configuration.
An additional object of the invention is to provide convenient means for mounting the appendages upon the trunk member of such a toy, which means permits facile pivoting of the appendages while at the same time affording sufficient frictional resistance for maintaining the figure parts in selected relative positions.
Additional objects of the invention are to provide such a toy figure which is effective in its appearance and utility, is durable, and is of relatively facile and inexpensive manufacture.